About a couple of years ago, I got a call from my daughter complaining of a terrible headache. One of the youth leaders at her church had convinced her that she had to fast and refrain from eating food for a certain length of time to show her devotion to God. After a few choice questions, I then explained to her that the exercise of fasting was performed by people during the ancient times and is done much less today because of modern demands on a person. The fasters used to deprive themselves of nutrition and limited their intake to water only.
As a parent, I was somewhat perturbed that the church didn’t consult me before they had secured my daughter’s commitment to such lunacy. I then explained to my daughter that it was an exercise that was done by people, as the biblical stories portrayed, who would live in a cave and sit there for days and do nothing. Their caloric requirements were much lower because of limited activity. I then contrasted her life with those who lived in caves to fast. My daughter was a student, a dancer at her school and at that time worked part-time. I explained to her that she was having a headache because she wasn’t sequestered in a cave somewhere doing nothing. She was living the life of one who lives in the new millennium and whose body required food just to meet her commitments.
So, always be ever vigilant. Democracies are built on questioning authority. The link below is an extreme example of the coercive potential of church leaders. The OC Register reported an Ex-Youth Pastor who was jailed for having sexual relations with a minor he met at church.
SEE OC REGISTER ARTICLE
So, always be ever vigilant. Democracies are built on questioning authority. The link below is an extreme example of the coercive potential of church leaders. The OC Register reported an Ex-Youth Pastor who was jailed for having sexual relations with a minor he met at church.
SEE OC REGISTER ARTICLE
